Ascension
by nemaara
Summary: I am a demon from the fires of hell. I have dreamt of every nightmare conceivable and seen them carried through in my father's domain. I have seen infinite souls drop down to be burned in ceaseless torment in the pits of abaddon. So why is your world even filthier than mine? Warning: M for a very good reason.
1. Prelude

Disclaimer: Teen Titans isn't mine

The inspiration for this one? I'm generally not very tempered, and someone was flaming me - my muse did the rest. So because this story is far from pleasant, it merits a -

**_Warning: _**This fic is going to be extremely disturbing by most normal standards. There will be vivid descriptions of violence, blood and gore, explicit scenes, and whatever else my muse may dictate to me. **_Do not read if you are uncomfortable with violence, horror, psychological trauma, sex, or anything of the sort._**

Also keep in mind that I do not endorse actually doing anything depicted in the story. In fact, you probably should not do anything I depict in this story (related to violent things).

"Speech"

_Thoughts_

* * *

_This world is chaos. _

_There are those who choose to ignore it. And there are those who embrace it for its truth._

_People believe that things happen for reasons. Being steeped in lies, in ignorant folly. _

_Some things... no... everything is chaos. Nothing happens for a reason. Things just are. They happen, and there is no reason for it. _

_In this world, there is no right or wrong. Every decision, every action just happens. And that is that. _

_All is chaos._

* * *

A shadowy figure slipping in the oblivious void of night - death crackling about her as she moved - noiseless, invisible - but bearing with her the perturbed aura of something utterly demonic.

Lurking in the gloom.

Moody, deathly quiet.

Still, but tensed, waiting to lash out at whatever might come in reach.

But there was nothing.

She moved on, shifting from one patch of unending darkness to another, cloaked in shadows, nothing but a faint whisper of wind. An incorporeal form, wavering... she seemed unable to settle on a particular shape, a mere mass of chaotic energy, shifting perfectly with the flow of crepuscular black about her. Though perhaps, just maybe, where her face should have been, there were two... no, four... faint eyes, gleaming with a faint sanguine hue.

Or perhaps they were just an illusion - the blackness closed in about her, an obscuring shroud, and nothing could be made out save for that eerie aura surrounding her.

She blew about, guided by the wind, until at last the darkness was broken by the faint glimmer of light... raw fury welled up within her and suddenly the darkness of her form began to swirl violently, storming edgily toward the offending invasion of light into the domain of the void.

Squinting, she turned her senses in the direction of the hated glow and found a large collection of metallic constructions, most of them radiating the detested light. Especially the gigantic 'T', rising out of the bay - she gave off a dark growl, rage boiling within her again, but then it faded, suddenly replaced with a low purr. This time, the four eyes - the four crimson eyes - were readily visible, glinting with bloodlust, as she began to descend the hill, her dark, chaotic form still invisible as she passed into the light.

_All is chaos. _

* * *

Her nose wrinkled as she passed through the dim lights of the darkened city, an odd feeling of filth pervading her senses. Yes. Something utterly grotesque, a diseased tumor sapping the life from the earth beneath her, rotting at its flesh. She grimaced, growling slightly, and extended her senses.

One of the doors a nearby alley burst open and out of it flew the naked body of a woman. She landed hard on the ground, bleeding and crying, and not a moment later, a man emerged out, holding a baseball bat in his hands.

The chaotic aura about the shadowy figure continued churning about her slowly, seemingly unperturbed, as the man swung the bat down, hard, then again and again, each time eliciting a scream - until one last swing produced an odd choking noise and a sickening crunch, then silence.

Another alley, a man jumped out from the darkness toward a young child, tackling him to the ground. He grinned, and drew a knife, staring the kid down.

The shadows swirled about, still flowing placidly, as the blade swung down, not once, but twice - three times, ten - and silence.

A man crossed the street, holding a bag of groceries, running a hand through his greying hair. And then a motorcycle darted out of nowhere, slammed into him, and a two lean figures hopped off, grabbing what they could, patting him down for keys and wallet, then got back on the bike and ran over his body again, disappearing into the darkness.

Silence.

_All is chaos. _

Shifting slightly, the darkness began to whirl around her more rapidly.

Up high above the streets, in a run down apartment building, a man, beating his young daughter, beer bottle in hand, pummeling her mercilessly into the floor, ignoring her pleas for mercy, ignoring the blood staining his hands, the protests of her small bones with each strike...

Suddenly the darkness was everywhere, blocking out everything save for the two people and two pairs of crimson eyes in the corner.

_Step aside, mortal... _

The man turned toward her, unfazed, the glaze in his eyes marking his drunken state.

"Nobody - *hic - tells me - *hic - what to do..."

He threw the bottle straight at her, but it flew through the shadows and shattered. She gave off a low, rasping chuckle.

_This girl is mine. _

The shadows rushed in and the man screamed, his eyes rolling back in his head, veins bulging up, almost looking as if they would pop straight out of his skin. His arms and legs bent of their own accord and his screams intensified as they moved around, resting at impossible angles for several moments, then were forced to turn again, until all of the tendons and muscles around his joints were shredded.

The crimson eyes glinted wickedly and she let him fall. And turned her gaze.

The girl whimpered and began to cry, but stopped as the shadowy figure's soft voice sounded.

"Shhh... shh... it's going to be okay."

The sanguine drew close to her and she stared up, still frightfully, but uncertain whether this foreboding figure would actually harm her. Reaching out with a tiny arm, the girl made contact with soft, smooth skin, and realized that whoever - whatever it was - was right in front of her.

_Everything is going to be fine. You're safe now... _a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth opened and the shadows closed in.

_All is chaos._

* * *

"I don't like the look of this..." Cyborg muttered as he walked up the stairs of the old apartment building, looking at the plaster peeling off the walls.

"Yeah, dude, what gives? People die all the time. It's not our business-"

"Beast Boy," Robin grumbled, glaring at him.

"Yeah, B, we're trying to be serious," Terra frowned at him, though she snuck him a small smile once Robin looked away.

Starfire followed silently in the back, looking up at the flickering lights on the ceiling, then back up to the other Titans as she realized that they were moving on without her.

Robin sighed. "I just don't know how this all happened. I thought when we beat the Brotherhood of Evil two years ago, we'd see an end to all of these problems. But if anything, the crime rate has only gone up since then."

"Dude, we can't save everyone."

"But we must at least try. Is that not right?" Starfire paused, looking at their masked leader. "Robin? Friend Robin?"

He shook his head. "Whatever the reason, that's not what we're doing here. If this was just an ordinary murder, we'd have the police handle this. Even if they can't do anything right," he muttered under his breath and cleared his throat. "But that's not the issue. Supposedly, I've been told, they found a man surrounded by a bunch of tiny bones around him this morning. He was surrounded by blood, but it wasn't his own."

"And the bones?" Cyborg grimaced.

"He was living with his daughter. She was four years old."

The other Titans paled, but Robin shook his head again. "He was in a catatonic state when they found him. It's unlikely that he was the one who did anything. The second strange thing is that the rest of the body could not be found. There was no sign of anyone leaving or entering the room by force, and forensic analysis of the blood placed the time of death at approximately 4:00 AM."

"So, he killed her, and _ate _her?" Terra's eyes were wide.

"Unlikely. I said he was unresponsive when they found him. Apparently he had experienced some extreme psychological trauma, or something to that effect. He had no physical damage done to his body."

"Maybe the guy was just crazy," Beast Boy offered.

"Let's hope that that's the case," Robin muttered, then continued the rest of the way up the stairs and nodded at the police officer standing beside the yellow tape, moving to duck under it.

The man stopped him. "Um, it might be better if you don't look..."

Robin frowned. "Nonsense. It's my - our - job."

The police officer shook his head sadly. "You're only kids..."

"I'm twenty," Robin grumbled, moving past the caution tape. "And besides, like I said, it's my job." He turned. "Cyborg, you come with me. The rest of you can stay out here if you don't want to see."

They stared at each other as the half-robotic man joined their masked leader and decided that it might be better to just stay put.

Robin opened the door to the room and paled slightly, but set his mouth in a hard, straight line, forcing back the bile rising from his stomach, trying to detach himself completely from the scene in front of him and analyze it objectively. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, and opened them again, scanning the room carefully.

The first thing he noted was that the floor and part of the walls were stained with dried blood. His brows furrowed. _The average adult human has about 5 liters of blood. A child, depending on how big she was, probably had less than 2 liters. Whoever did this was a messy eater... _He shook his head, trying not to remember Terra's comment, and turned his attention away. He looked toward the bed, which seemed relatively ordinary, though a careful analysis of it later might prove otherwise.

Then toward the part of the floor which was not splattered with the dark, almost brownish color - probably where the man had been found - and scattered all about, as the police report had said - many small bones, clearly human, those of a child. They seemed unnaturally clean for being from someone so recently murdered - and then the thought crossed his mind that maybe Terra had been right after all.

He looked at Cyborg, who also seemed to be struggling not to throw up. "An animal could have done this," the dark skinned man suggested.

"I don't think so. The blood is spread all across the floor, almost evenly. No animal would have done that. And another thing. Did you notice?"

Cyborg shook his head and watched carefully as Robin pointed toward the bones scattered across the floor. And then his human eye widened, mechanical one flashing with red light.

"It looks like some sort of symbol."

Robin nodded. "Whoever did this did it to send a message," he turned back toward the room, staring at the bones, scattered into a roughly S-shaped symbol, with two dots, one in the upper right side and another in the lower left.

"Nothing I've ever seen before. Take a picture of it." He paused and stood aside. "Think we'll need to run some forensics on anything else?"

"If you trust the data the police gave us, then no."

Robin put a hand to his chin and grimaced after a moment, then walked into the room, stepping carefully so not to disturb the crime scene too much. There was a closet on his right side - the first thing he noted - and he moved to check that, opening it cautiously. Inside, the girl's bloodstained skull hung from a chain, almost like some sort of toy, and he fought down his roiling innards, holding up a flashlight and scanning the place carefully. Nothing of importance.

Then carefully toward the bed, he let the light shine on it first, wondering if he could see through the sheets without having to disturb them, but then finding nothing, he shifted everything about slowly, finding nothing again.

And then toward the single window on the other side of the room - he tried opening it, but it was rusted shut, refusing to budge.

Back across the room and he knelt down, looking at the floor carefully.

"This _is _blood," he said slowly. "There were no footprints leading out, and the window could not be opened."

"So whoever did this sprayed the room with blood afterwards? That seems unlikely."

"Or," Robin muttered, "we have a metahuman on our hands."

He turned back toward the rest of the Titans, who were all quiet, looking at him solemnly. "It's been a long time since we've actually had to fight someone with real powers. Usually the problem is figuring out who it is or what their plan is. Not the fight itself..."

"We can take 'im!" Beast Boy said fiercely, but then drew back as everyone glared at him. "Um... or maybe not."

"Are you sure?"

"Evidence matches up. A weird symbol, no sign of entry or exit, apparently _eating _a little girl... hell, maybe it's not a metahuman at all, but a demon or something completely weird..."

"Let's go back to the Tower and see if we can figure out what this symbol is," Cyborg walked past him, looking at the dark expression on his face.

Robin ignored him, and the robotic man sighed, leaning in close. "Dude. No need to obsess about it here. We'll figure out who this guy is and we'll put him behind bars. Don't worry."

"I'm thinking."

"Then think when we get back. I don't know about you, but I really need to get to a toilet. And looks like you do too."

Robin looked up and noted that Cyborg looked a little green and figured he must've looked the same. He smiled a little and nodded, holding a hand to his stomach. Even if they were heroes and had seen things like that before, it still was never a pleasant sight.

* * *

She yawned and stretched, arching her back, then opened her eyes as the shadows closed in around her. _The darkness rules again... _she smiled faintly, looking out at the fading sun, only a tiny sliver of colored light still glowing on the horizon.

Gliding slightly above the ground, she phased through a brick wall and found herself in another room in the abandoned building, a room filled with barrels and crates of what seemed to be aged wine and beer.

A pale hand reached out and she lifted the top off of one of the barrels, peering inside - she decided she did not like the smell - and instead opted to inspect one of the wine bottles, slicing off the top and sniffing at it.

Apparently it was acceptable - for she downed the whole thing in a matter of seconds - and phased out of the room, back out into the open night. She sniffed at the air, giving off a purr of contentment, and drifted about, savoring the gloomy void about her.

In this part of the city, there was no light at all. It had long been abandoned by the government and reform groups - the sheer amount of vandalism and the unimaginably high crime rate had seen to that.

At first sight, it might have seemed abandoned, but she sensed that there were people - many people - in most of the darkened buildings. Evidently, they had just gotten used to the absence of light.

As the night progressed, more of them emerged and passed by her, the invisible mass of shadows drifting about in the equally dark gloom, and some of them even turned to look directly at her, nervousness rising off in waves, but seeing nothing, continued on their ways. She felt content enough to let them pass by, uninhibited, though there was an odd, prickling sensation in the back of her mind - she growled slightly, knowing that their discomfort was reflecting itself on her.

Odd then, that she could eat a child and feel its pain while being eaten with apparently no side effects, but she felt irritated by a small sense of uneasiness from the people here. Perhaps her empathic powers were situational. Crimson flared in the back of her mind as she sensed an odd feeling of pain in her ribs and back - someone must have been beaten somewhere - but she still remained motionless, though the crepuscular aura about her swirled a little more rapidly.

She began moving again, restlessly, irate, agitated, phasing through the wall of a building and up the stairs, not caring where she was going, then stopped in front of a door, behind which she could hear a pair of voices shouting at each other.

Anger billowed out, fueling her own, and her crimson eyes darkened. She stepped through the wall, observing the scene quietly, blackness storming around her in a terrifying spiral. But the two people - a man and a woman, probably his girlfriend - did not seem to notice and continued yelling at each other. She pushed him back and he struck her across the face, hard, then kicked her in the ribs. And pulled out a gun.

Suddenly, the shadowed figure felt an extremely uncomfortable feeling run through her, almost like a burning in her chest, forcing her pulse to quicken. She gave off an audible growl, realizing that it was the woman's fear affecting her, and rushed forward, anger exploding out.

The man had no chance. In an instant, he was ripped to shreds and the woman screamed, the terror emanating from her only magnified by the gruesome act. The shadowed figure growled again, turning her attention to the screaming person and tore her apart as well, darkness slicing into her body again and again, not stopping until she was completely mangled, utterly unrecognizable.

The door flew open and the shadowed figure wheeled about sharply, turning her tendrils of black energy on the first thing she could find, and a splatter of blood splashed the doorway as another human body was ripped in half. She glided over to it, examining the body carefully, then tore out a chunk of smooth flesh, mouth watering.

She could sense more people approach, and suddenly she felt her mind explode with raw fury - was it too much to ask to be able to have a snack in peace?

The first person who even came close to the door was utterly disintegrated. She felt indulgent enough to leave the other bodies at least partially intact - but then again, what did it matter to her? She shrugged and let the darkness fade, sniffing at the air, gliding over the heap of flesh and bone to the body of a young boy in the corner.

Child meat was always the most tender.

* * *

Robin staggered back into the common room, holding his stomach, barely managing to keep his face still. The rest of the Titans jumped up immediately and Cyborg rushed to go get him a bucket, placing it in front of him.

He hurled into it several times, coughing and sputtering, then moved it aside, walking over to the sink and splashing water on his face.

Beast Boy stared at him wide-eyed. "Dude. You okay?"

"Robin-"

"Was it bad?"

"You should have let me go with you-"

"Did this guy really kill 30 people?"

"Guys!" He shouted over them, then sat, taking a few deep breaths. "Guys," he said a little more calmly. "I'm going to go over the details with you. Just... give me a moment."

The rest of them nodded and Starfire flew over to him, putting an arm around his shoulder and looked at him reassuringly. He smiled back after a moment, then looked at them all seriously.

"Nothing for certain, but judging by the number of bodies, it's either someone very skilled with a knife, or it's a metahuman."

"Or Slade and his robots."

"Slade doesn't use blades. Besides, he wouldn't leave such a mess," Robin shuddered, trying to clear the images from his mind. "It looked almost like whoever it was got caught up in a fit of anger and just decided to kill them all without caring about cleaning up afterwards."

"Did you see that symbol again?"

Robin nodded. "Our killer carved a woman's body into that shape."

All of them paled. "Sounds serious..."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Excuse me, Sherlock's over there-"

"Beast Boy, Terra! This is serious!"

They both held up their hands guiltily, and looked back at Robin worriedly as his gaze dropped again.

"Well, whatever it is, it leaves no trace behind. The police couldn't figure out how it killed all those people."

"What do you mean? It just slashed them all to death, right?"

"But with what?"

"A knife. Or... a sword..."

"If the item in question can't be found, there would be no evidence left behind anyway," Cyborg muttered. "The only option you could possibly have is to find something that the killer might have left as a clue. Carelessly, if what you suggested about it being angry is true."

"It was a mass of bodies covered in blood. Identifying something personal was impossible. No hairs, no fingerprints, nothing. And no eyewitnesses. Obviously..."

"Anyone see anything unusual last night?"

"I spoke with some people. They said that they felt something off, but nobody saw anything. Besides, Vandal's Lane is so dark at night that you can't really see anything anyway."

"Well if it's a metahuman, like you're saying, then they'd probably leave an energy signature behind when they killed all those people," Terra said slowly. "You once said something about me leaving one behind when I use my powers..."

"It was a dead end," Robin held up a instrument in his hand that resembled a radiation detector. "Not all metas leave energy behind. Kyd Wykkyd was an example. All we have to go by is that symbol. Did you have any luck finding it?"

Cyborg shook his head. "It's not in any of our databases or any of the League's either."

Robin sighed. "At this rate, we're just going to have to wait for the next attack to happen before we can do anything..."

"But-"

"Robin, we cannot just-"

The masked hero stood angrily, holding his hands up in frustration. "Then what would you guys do? I have no idea what this thing is, what it wants, or what it's going to do next!"

"None of us do. Nobody's blaming you."

He sat back down, teeth gritted. "I know that."

"Maybe... we need some help?"

"And who'd be able to help us?"

"Well, Batman..."

Robin ran a hand through his hair, looking up at the ceiling. Beast Boy persisted.

"I thought you two were okay now."

Robin glanced at him. "We are. But believe me, Batman wouldn't be able to figure anything out from just this either. It takes more than two strikes to establish a pattern when dealing with a new villain."

"But it doesn't hurt to ask..."

"He's right, you know. It's not a big deal. You don't have to worry about bruising your ego-"

"It's not about my ego at all," Robin hissed. "People's lives are at stake here. How could I worry about my ego with something like this happening?"

"Then-"

"I'll see if I can get him to come here and look at it," Robin muttered, then got up and left the room.

* * *

_Night. _She stretched again, purring, arching her back, and let the familiar shadow surround her. Rising, she phased through several walls until she was inside a bathroom, which she had just recently found out had running water, after observing the humans for a while.

She pulled out a package of white powder, baking soda, and scrubbed her razor sharp teeth with it - she had long since learned that doing that prevented the blood from eating away at her enamel.

She splashed some water on her face and phased outside again, wandering aimlessly about as she usually did; normally, it was in search of a suitable meal, but tonight she did not feel particularly hungry, and so she merely let the cold wind blow against her body, soothing, calming.

It began to rain, just slightly. She looked up wonderingly - after all, she had never seen water fall from the sky before - and found that she rather liked it - enough to even ignore the faint sensations of fear and disquiet simmering at the edges of her mind.

The city - or the whole human world, she supposed - was a decidedly unpleasant place. No matter where she went, all she could feel were those awful emotions of either terror, or raw anger, or utter depravity emanating from people - oh the things that did to one's psyche.

Her eyes glinted. Though, by their standards, she was already insane, so what did that matter? Of course, being terrified or angry was still unpleasant...

She paused as she saw a familiar structure and had to look twice to make sure that her senses were not deceiving her.

Yes, it was all too familiar. Perhaps it was not as large as it had been where she had come from, nor was it laced with any sort of sorcery, but the barred windows, she recognized them. A prison.

Instantly she was angry, but curious - the only thing that prevented her from eradicating the construct from existence at that moment.

She slipped inside, noting that it seemed to be empty. Well, no guards at least.

Some of the cells still had people in them, glassy eyed, mindless people who looked up as they sensed something stir outside of their doors - which they didn't seem to realize were open - but other than that, there was nothing left inside their wasted bodies at all. Soulless...

There were many corpses, rotting corpses whose stench she rather disliked. She set them ablaze and decided that the smell of burning flesh was much better.

Vaguely, she wondered whether the same thing might have happened to her, but the thought was pushed from her mind quickly - she was free now, after all, and all of that was behind her. But of course, it had left her with an intense dislike of prisons.

She blinked a few times as a new sensation tingled at the edge of her mind - not the fear, not the fury that she had gotten used to. No this one was something else... ah yes... it was misery. Sheer misery, of the pathetic type, but also of the type that evoked pity.

Maybe these people were not as soulless as she had thought.

Curiously, the crimson eyes were a little softer as a pale hand extended and their bodies were reduced to dust.

_Perhaps this world is not so different from Hell after all. _

Yes. There was anger still boiling there, she could understand that feeling, and it only served to irritate her more. The fear, the terror, an odd sense of discomfort, one that she was not used to nor did she ever feel - the sources of those were eliminated too. But the torment that these people had to endure, with no hope of escape?

Wrong. The fact that there was hope to escape, but a terrible, false hope at that. The fate that laid outside of those prison doors, in the rest of the city, was no better than the one that they had within. To rot in a cell, or to die by mugging. It was no wonder, then, that they did not even bother leaving, even when the doors were open.

That only served to infuriate her more as well.

A loud explosion and half the prison was blown apart. She knew that the human police would not take long to get here, but she honestly could not care less. They could fire all of their shiny weapons at her and it would not even tickle.

She looked down and saw that there was another passage underground, leading to the lower levels of the prison. She glided down the dark hallways slowly, almost lazily, eyes scanning the empty rows of prison cells around her. From what she could sense, all was a void once more. It was completely abandoned here - not even the roaches bothered coming, for they probably knew that there was nothing as well. She turned to leave, nothingness was boring, after all, but then there was a faint cry that accompanied the sound of what seemed like a pair of fists banging on a barrier.

The crimson eyes darkened.

She moved down another level, then another, and now she could feel another aura brush up against her own, another _living _aura, not those stagnant, lifeless ones of those soulless people above, but the aura of one still suffering, and suffering greatly at that.

Down one last floor, and she squinted toward what seemed to be a large cylinder of blue light - within it, the source of the other packet of emotions.

She approached it, touching it with her hand, feeling the smooth energy give way slightly as she pressed it, but then repelling her if she tried to force her way through. Yes, a barrier. Another prison.

_Another prison. _

The crimson eyes flared and suddenly fire burst from the ground in a massive torrent, blowing apart the barrier completely and revealing the silhouette of another girl in the dust.

They stared at each other for several long moments, crimson eyes meeting pink ones, and then she noticed that the girl's long, pink hair was dulled and she was emaciated to the point of death.

A pale hand rose up, charged with darkness, and suddenly the pink eyes were filled with that awful fear, that terrible sense of fright that only now could she seem to understand, only now did she know what _terror _was, and instantly the darkness dissipated.

Her low, slightly gravelly voice sounded. "What's your name?"

The gaze of the pink eyed girl never left her own. "Jinx. Yours?"

The darkness faded from around her, leaving a surprisingly small, short girl, with shoulder length violet hair and only a single pair of striking violet eyes to match.

"Raven."


	2. Malady

Disclaimer: Teen Titans isn't mine

Once again, I'd like to point out that because none of my stories are revised, betaed, or proofread, I do tend to make random errors and misspellings. So, if you ever notice anything wrong, please don't hesitate to notify me so that I can fix it.

Another note: I'm toning back the level of violence from what I had originally intended since this site doesn't support MA fics. It's now more at an M level, though it's probably still a bit extreme. Because of that, I have to give a...

_**Warning: ****Remember**_** that this is rated M for very graphic scenes of violence and other mature content. **So, don't read if you are easily disturbed by such things.

"Speech"

_Thoughts _

* * *

If she had been surprised that the other girl was completely naked, she did not show it. If she had been overwhelmed, momentarily, by the terrifying power of darkness around the pale figure, she gave no inclination of fear. If she was surprised when the girl drew closer and looked at her oddly, as if she were a meal and not a person, nothing broke through the stoic visage of her face. If she was in the least nervous, when darkness drew in about her and a terrifying chill swept through her body, sapping all the heat and life from her, she did not give off a hint of perturbation.

She was far too broken for any of those things, after all.

* * *

The night was still a heavy shroud around them; it must have been unnaturally long, for it had already had been several hours and the darkness showed no sign of lifting. Perhaps it was some odd demon sorcery, or maybe she had just lost all sense of time.

Her eyes needed no adjusting - years of being locked up in that barrier, with hardly anything to eat, with nothing but the void eating away at her mind - it was enough to turn anyone nocturnal. Hell, forget nocturnal. She hardly even remembered what daylight was. Those years of solitude... it was enough to drive anyone insane.

Yes. She must have been insane to follow this strange, violet haired girl, who had originally been a mass of shadows and two pairs of crimson eyes when she had first seen her. A devil, or certainly something not human. Something very, very dangerous, something that no sane person would have gotten close to. But then again, what use was sanity to her? Her eyes glowed dangerously. That was precisely what had gotten her locked up in the first place.

They trailed the line of darkness between the dim city lights, a pair of invisible shades stealing through the night, two bare, pale bodies moving so quickly that they seemed surreal, like the incorporeal forms of ghosts. Occasionally, one of them would suddenly flicker between a dreadful, demonic form of pure darkness, then shift back to the human-like figure, but it did not faze the pink haired girl whatsoever. There were already plenty of demons in this world. They just happened not to appear like them.

They paused in front of a seemingly empty building and Raven looked at it with a pair of dark eyes, flickering between sanguine and mauve light, a dreadful, disturbed sensation emanating from her. Decidedly agitated, she growled quietly, then darkness engulfed them again and they rose up.

Now that they were inside, she knew that it was not abandoned. No, a place with fresh blood blooming on the walls, a place filled with so many ghastly screams, the sense of chaos and terror all about, so much fear pervading the air... there was no way that it was empty.

They both stopped as there was a loud bang.

A door flew open behind them and a man was thrown out, bleeding and crying, his body covered in bruises and wounds, one eye swollen so much that it was sealed completely shut. After another moment, a woman was sent sailing out beside him in just as bad of a condition, only she was completely naked and her abdomen was slightly wet - there was no need to wonder what had happened to her.

A couple of dark figures appeared a moment later, covered in black masks and holding crowbars, glaring maliciously down at the couple cowering in the corner.

"You had your chance, Jason. We asked you _very _nicely to pay up a month ago. But you decided that-"

"No, no! You've got it all wrong! I-"

A crowbar swung forward, slamming into the side of his head and he collapsed. The woman screamed, holding his bleeding head, but then she, too was slammed into the ground. Her eyes rolled up and she passed out.

One of the shadowed figures snorted. "Pathetic."

He swung down hard, and there was a nasty, splintering sound, followed by an agonized howl of pain. The woman's eyes flew open and she screamed again as she felt the blood trickle down her back, watching it stain the floor beneath her. And then the man grabbed her throat, cutting off the air to her lungs, smiling sadistically at the terror in her eyes. Beside her, the one called Jason cowered in fear as the other figure approached, brandishing his metal bar in the darkness.

"You didn't think you'd get away, did you?"

Jinx glanced at Raven, who seemed to be frozen in place, darkness swirling about her rapidly. There was an odd look in her eyes, as if she were terrified as well, though as she looked more closely, she saw the crimson boiling beneath the violet irises. Raven's mouth twitched a few times as she sensed the men swing downward, the dull, rhythmic sounds of metal contacting flesh interrupted by periodic screams of agony. Jinx stared at the dark lines deepening on her smooth face - the slightest indication that she was either angry, or afraid, or maybe both... She blinked as Raven disappeared, frowned, then glanced to the side as there were cries of anger from the two masked men.

"What the fuck-" "What do you think you're-"

Wordlessly, the shadowed, crimson eyed figure in front of them stretched out its arms, and suddenly they were the ones screaming, blood dripping down their faces as their heads practically imploded. Their bodies seemed to burst out from within, and the shadow of a macabre spray of matter appeared on the wall a moment before it actually hit. In the dim light, the plaster had become a mosaic of crimson and brown, and where two bodies had once stood, there was nothing left but a pile of bones. Her eyes gleamed as she picked up a white, spherical object - the remains of a face; she ground a foot into the top of it, destroying what remained, then continued bashing what remained until there was nothing but a mass of shards of white on the ground. She stared for a minute or two, then, satisfied, turned to the wounded couple behind her, eyes glimmering as they stared at her, aghast.

She held out a hand, gaze softening a little. They made eye contact as she moved toward them slowly, the darkness around her placated somewhat, seeming much less threatening than before. The pair relaxed slightly - she didn't seem like she wanted to hurt them. A blue shimmer surrounded her shadowy visage and energy spread out in a light haze...

And tore them both to shreds. Jinx's eyes widened very slightly as Raven knelt, inspecting the body of the once woman for a moment, then found a piece of smooth flesh and tore it straight off.

Blood dripped down her chin as she turned, her face back to its pale grey color, with only the single pair of dark, violet eyes. She gave Jinx a questioning look, and the pinkette shook her head, stomach twisting a little.

"I'm... not a cannibal."

"Neither am I," Raven replied huskily before holding up a bone, squinting at it.

Jinx's face twitched very slightly. "So then... what are you?"

Raven swallowed, wiping her mouth. "A demon. Does that bother you?"

"I-" she paused, watching the other girl continue eating, then once she could find no more suitable flesh, sit back and close her eyes, purring softly. "No, it doesn't bother me." Still unfazed. "But I don't eat people." Something about that still made her a bit queasy, though it wasn't really disturbing. Probably just natural instinct that human meat didn't seem appealing.

Raven leaned in close, putting a hand on the pinkette's bare chest, feeling her steady pulse through her emaciated body. "So, what _do _humans eat then?"

"Maybe you'd like to go on a food raid with me?"

The violet haired girl's eyes flashed, shadows collapsing about her until she was back into her amorphous, nearly invisible form. "As long as we finish before dawn."

Jinx nodded. "Of course."

* * *

She breathed in the foul, smog-ridden city air as if it were perfectly clean, letting out a low, soft sigh. Not the usual sense of a scenic landscape - almost everything was run down, covered with grime and the messy scrawls of vandals, and stains of probably blood. And it didn't stop there. The filth filled the atmosphere around them, carrying with it the stench of gore, dead bodies, decaying objects of various forms... but she didn't care.

Polluted, sure. Toxic, maybe. But it had been such a long time since she had been free, since she had even been able to walk around and stretch her limbs in the open air. For now, the filthy, dank city was perfectly fine to her.

She looked over and surprisingly, Raven seemed to be enjoying herself as well, though for what reason, Jinx had no clue. But she definitely seemed more relaxed - the tension in her posture, the perpetual scowl and furrow to her brows were gone - her eyes shimmered perfectly violet without a hint of crimson in them. If she had to guess at anything, it would have been that like her, the demon girl had escaped from a prison as well and was merely enjoying her freedom. But that was only a guess.

Jinx held out a hand tentatively toward the other girl as she saw a building to their left, with dim, flickering lights barely lighting its entrance in the darkness. Raven turned before she could touch her, looking at her questioningly, then studied the open doorway for a moment, brows creased slightly.

"A place like this would have human food?"

Jinx shrugged. "It's a prostitute house. People get tired after sex." And then she frowned. "You do know what that is, right?"

Raven nodded, then beckoned for the other girl to follow. They made their way through the blackened hallway easily, hearing faint noises of laughter, occasionally punctuated by loud moans and even screams - though markedly different from the screams of terror that they had heard earlier. Raven paused, an odd gleam in her eyes as she turned toward Jinx, but then shook her head and turned back, letting her powers surge up.

Darkness took them a couple floors down and they found themselves in a room filled with clothes - prostitutes' clothes, for the most part, judging by the skimpiness of them.

Jinx slipped into a simple, black t-shirt and a pair of jeans, then looked at Raven, who wore a skin tight body suit, all black as well, made of some sort of nylon that fit well to her. The pinkette raised an eyebrow.

Raven shrugged. "There was nothing better," she gestured to the less-than adequate pile of clothing beside her and Jinx nodded.

They left and moved around stealthily through the empty halls. A pair of violet eyes scanned the closed doorways, and abruptly, she chose a random one to enter, finding a relatively spacious room with an unmanned bar on one side, still stocked with drinks, and a large television on the other. Probably a living room, which nobody happened to be in at the moment.

The pair moved silently over to the bar and Jinx opened the fridge behind the counter, grinning as she saw that it was stocked with food. She found a plate of wings - cold wings - but still, very tasty wings, and ate ravenously, tearing at the meat almost like she had seen Raven eat that woman earlier.

She looked at Raven, who had found several pieces of roast ham, and smirked a little at the demon girl's surprised expression - she seemed to like the taste of it, or at least did not expect that it did not taste horrible.

After a few minutes, the violet haired girl slipped past her and glanced at the bottles of beer and wine on the shelves, then eyed an unfamiliar device - a tank of water, inverted, with a couple of levers beneath it. She found a cup in a drawer, opened another, and finding a package that appeared to be filled with leaves, looked back at Jinx, who swallowed a piece of bread before responding.

"It's tea. You drink it."

Turning back wordlessly, Raven sprinkled a few leaves into the cup and stared at the levers - the red one meant hot, she supposed - and pressed it down. Sniffing at the fragrance, she sipped at the drink and felt an odd sense of comfortable warmth, a sense of calm that she had not felt in a long time.

Jinx smiled at the expression of satisfaction on her face, but then quickly scowled as she saw someone enter from the doorway on the opposite side of the room.

A tall, well muscled man by the looks of it - he glanced over toward them as he flipped on the lights, and supposing they were no different than the other, ordinary prostitutes, grinned and moved - no, strutted over, failing to notice the dark expression on Raven's face.

"How's it goin', ladies? How's 'bout havin' some fun tonight?"

Jinx turned away, mildly disgusted, and he frowned a little before looking at Raven, who was staring at her tea.

"What about you, miss? I fancy you're a lil' more fun than your friend ov'r there-"

"No," Raven growled.

His frown deepened. "Well that's just too bad, ain't it," there was a little bit of fumbling and Raven's face darkened yet further as she noted that his pants were down. He tried to grab her, but she moved aside effortlessly, causing him to fall to the ground like an idiot. A moment later, he got up, face flushed and angry, advancing toward her.

"Now look here-" he grabbed her wrist and her eyes flashed.

"Alright," she said slowly. "I'll have some fun with you."

Instantly he grinned again and waited patiently as she moved a hand down...

And screamed as her hand formed a black claw and she tore back quickly, drawing it back from his groin, then stuffed then contents of her hand in his mouth, muffling his cries of agony. She heard a quiet snicker from behind her and could not help but feel a little amused as well, licking her lips as she pushed him to the ground and put her face right above his. His eyes clouded over with terror as he saw the crimson gleam behind the pools of violet and he began struggling violently, but found that she was stronger than he was.

"Fun, you said," she whispered in his ear, licking the side of his face, up, nibbling at his earlobe, then down to his neck. "Let's have fun then."

She bit down, hard, eliciting another muffled shriek.

"Fun," she repeated, moving her hands over his chest, over his abdomen, down over his pelvis, caressing him softly for a few minutes, then thrust down violently and her hand appeared on the other side of his lower back. She drew back slightly, watching his eyes roll back up in his head, frowning. She stabbed down again, hard, and then satisfied that he was still conscious, got up and wiped her hand on his shirt.

"Enjoy yourself," she muttered, glancing back at Jinx, who was busy cleaning another plate of food.

"He had it coming," she mumbled from around a drumstick. "He _touched _you."

Raven shrugged nonchalantly and sipped at her tea. She did not reply, glancing up at the lights instead. They flickered out, and all was silent again.

Almost silent.

It should have been peaceful, but she felt like something was near - no, she could hear something. Another pest to get rid of?

She extended the range of her senses, through the walls, but there was nobody else around so she figured it was just her imagination. But still, she could not shake off the strange feeling in the air, a feeling of faint heat, a heat that did not burn her but rather stirred a bit of excitement in her...

She heard something and turned again, listening carefully. It was faint, but after a few moments, her ears caught the sounds of moans reverberating from the walls. Her lips curved down and she tried to ignore it, but the warmth around her only grew. She felt an unfamiliar, somewhat uncomfortable, but not necessarily unpleasant feeling pervade her body and several minutes later, she felt distinctly hot - a bead of sweat ran down her cheek and she began breathing a little more quickly.

She set her tea down and moved over to the couch in front of the television, rubbing her temples, wondering what exactly the feeling running through her was. Though it was by no means warm around her - it was actually fairly cold, she could feel the sweat moisten the skin all over her body, and within her, it felt as if there were some unnatural heat causing the blood to rush through her veins. She was not angry, no, nor irritated, but rather... excited...

Her abdomen felt unnaturally clenched, and on her chest, she felt two points of intense sensation, causing spikes of sensation to run through her like little waves of electricity. Jinx looked at her curiously for a moment, wondering why the other girl seemed so off. She moved over toward the couch, then laughed as she saw Raven's back arch, her breasts pushing up against the fabric of her clothes, nipples very clearly hard, protruding from the black nylon... her vision traveled down, and she noted the slightly darker spot between Raven's legs and realized that she was very, very wet.

"You've never felt like this before?"

Raven turned, eyes flaring. "Fuck off."

Jinx laughed lightly. "You know, I could help you-"

"No," she growled, forcing her hands to stay still.

Darkness swirled around her rapidly, and suddenly Jinx felt it press in, smothering, not physically, but as a tempest of chaotic sensations, nothing clearly distinguishable. Raven gritted her teeth and balled her trembling hands into fists, but she shook back and forth a little, grinding her crotch against the bulge of the seat beneath her, leaving a glistening wet streak. Jinx licked her lips and inched her hand forward, very slowly as to not startle the other girl, hovered an inch above her back and stayed that way for a moment.

Then touched Raven's neck beneath her hair and was surprised that she did not just dissolve into darkness beneath that touch - no, she was a solid, warm, actually very hot body, slick with sweat, clearly very... aroused.

She ran a couple fingers up and down through Raven's hair, feeling the silky violet locks slip through her fingers. Her hands ghosted across Raven's skin, found a pressure point on her shoulders and squeezed lightly, very lightly, but the added sensation was enough to send her over.

Raven gasped and made a whimpering sound, a cross between a moan and a growl. She shuddered, back arching further back, looking almost straight up at the ceiling, her eyes slightly glazed over. Jinx could feel the tension in her body as she rode out the wave of pleasure and looked at her face as she seemed to freeze in place for about a good 20 seconds or so, grinning a little at the demon's vacant expression.

And then the violet haired girl breathed out in a long gasp, closing her eyes, the darkness around her fading slightly. She looked down at the small pool of liquid she had left on the couch, face still blank, but trembling very slightly. Shifting, she put on a strange face, a mix between loathing and fear...

Suddenly she seemed very small and very afraid. She would not look up, though from what Jinx could see, there was a sense of guilt in her eyes mixed with reminiscence, memories of horrible things that seemed as if they could only be nightmares, but were actually reality. An unlocked spectrum of emotions, they flitted through her eyes rapidly, completely unrestrained. And then the violet hardened and she was furious, but without any crimson behind it. This was not the raw, unbridled fury of her demon side, but the cold anger of her human side, the one that could be even more cruel and merciless than the senseless destruction she normally wrought...

Jinx backed away, but Raven clutched at her wrist holding her there, staring at her with that terribly cold glare, though there was still a vacant look in her eyes as if she were not angry with her at all, but something else from her past.

No, she was certain that Raven wasn't angry with her, otherwise she would be dead by now. She looked at everything she could, the crease between the girl's dark, heavy brows, the downward curve to her lips, the pronounced dark lines on her face... the pressure in her wrist, the threatening posture... she looked at everything, squirming nervously. The violet stare never left her face.

Her own, pink eyes continued fluttering about wildly, then locked on Raven's own, and suddenly there was an understanding.

_You have been hurt your whole life. _

The thought rang through the air, unspoken. But they had both thought it at the same time.

Suddenly Raven seemed all human, and Jinx felt something she had never felt before, never when she was a part of the Titans nor before then, when she was still a thief. Here was someone who had gone through something similar to what she had been through. They were kindred spirits.

Raven's gaze did not falter, though there was a softness about it that belied the demonic visage she had first worn when Jinx had met her. It hadn't been completely clear to her, but to some extent, she knew that Raven was capable of sensing others' emotions; however, empathizing and sympathizing were two very different things. And it had not occurred to her, not until now, that perhaps this creature in front of her, this demon-human hybrid, was capable of something so un-demonlike, and apparently inhuman as sympathy. Because no human had shown her sympathy before.

Sympathy... yes, she was certain there was a measure of sympathy there. Why else would _Raven, _the demon girl who ate people and mutilated them randomly, why else would she look at her this way? Not necessarily a kind look, but the hard lines that usually adorned her face and the slightly dulled look to her eyes spoke of pity, and even a little grief. She felt something stir in her, an alien sensation that she could not quite describe, and then she was acutely aware of her own face. She knew that she looked afraid, but not of Raven herself. She knew that her eyes were shimmering, but she was not sure whether it was joy, or despair, rather, it was the ineffable sensation that had suddenly overtaken both of them and made them understand, without knowing the details, that they had had parallel lives in the dimensions they lived in.

But the look in Raven's eyes hardened again, and though sanguine still did not pervade it, her voice changed from its usual smooth, slightly gravelly tone, back to the demonic growl.

"Who put you there?"

"The people who used to call me their friend," Jinx replied quietly. "You?"

"My father imprisoned me," she replied just as softly.

It was silent for a few minutes.

"We're free now," Jinx muttered.

Raven looked at her wrists, frowning. "No. We are still shackled. Our worlds are filled with naught but filth. They must be purged."

Once, that statement might have frightened her. But when the heroes, the supposed paragons of virtue had thrown her into that hell hole and left her to rot, she had realized exactly what Raven was saying. There was nothing but scum plaguing the world. And they were going to get rid of it.

Her eyes narrowed. "Starting with the ones who did this to me."

The crimson finally returned to Raven's eyes, glowing with a fiendish light. "Their lives will not be enough. They will suffer, as we did, and before the end, they will beg for us to end their lives."

"Torture..."

"Playing with your prey before you eat it."

"Once, I would have objected."

"But now?"

Jinx grimaced. "I am hollow. And I will be, until all of this is done."

Raven nodded and darkness swirled around them again. "If it is vengeance you seek, then it shall be granted..."

* * *

_Daybreak _

"Robin! Another one-"

"I know," Robin glanced up from the computer, looking at Cyborg. "Another one of those marks. But that's not the real issue here."

The robotic man raised an eyebrow. "Then what is?"

"Look," Robin pulled up a map on the screen and gestured to it, pointing at a blinking red dot. "Notice where this is?"

"An abandoned prison?"

The masked hero nodded. "I wonder what our little friend would be doing there? There should be nothing of interest. Unless he finds rats to be amusing to watch..."

"That was where some of the old HIVE criminals were being kept. Maybe this guy was looking for 'em or something."

"Maybe. We should go check it out. Did you tell the rest of the team yet?"

Cyborg shook his head. "I was afraid that we might have another scene like the other ones. I don't think they'd be able to handle it."

Robin opened his mouth, but then his communicator rang and he picked it up.

"Hello? Yes, this is Robin. Another one? No mark? Then it's not- I see. I'll send someone to check it out." He closed his communicator, frowning. "Another body. No mark. But it was, according to them, mutilated unnaturally."

"But no mark..."

"They already had someone from the League take a look at it. There was no sign of any magical residue and no clues as to what might have caused it, but the League isn't exactly known for its detectives besides Batman. I'll go take a look at that, and you take the rest of the team and check out that prison."

"You sure?"

"I have a hunch."

"If you say so man. I'll let you know if we find anything."

"Alright. Good luck."

* * *

It was mostly still as the Titans passed by the yellow tape. For once, both Beast Boy and Terra were quiet, somber even. It wasn't much of a surprise, however; this place brought back bad memories for all of them.

Sure, the HIVE were criminals, and honestly they didn't have a problem with locking up most of them, if only for a short period before they broke free again, but Jinx had been one of them.

To be honest, none of them had really been certain that putting her in a prison cell was the best thing to do, but the few times her powers had gone haywire, it had wreaked terrible destruction. That would have been workable in itself, except the catch was that she had not seemed to feel guilty about the side effects of her lack of control at all, nor did she seem to feel at all responsible that it was her own anger that had caused her to lose control in the first place.

Admittedly, none of them were guilt free of that trait either. Robin was ill-tempered, Beast Boy and Starfire weren't exactly the most controlled people, and Terra had proven in the past that she did lack some restraint. It probably was just bad luck that Jinx ended up with the powers that could go the most out of whack when she let her emotions fly, but she did not seem to understand that she was endangering people by letting loose...

Still, it was a bit much to label her as a common criminal, as they had done. But nobody knew exactly what to do with her.

He looked around and noticed the other Titans frozen in place, all seemingly lost in thought as well. Cyborg heaved a sigh.

"You guys thinkin' about her too?"

Beast Boy nodded. "Still wondering if it was right."

"Can't be sure," Terra said quietly. "She never did hurt any innocent people."

"Define innocent."

"Those who do not harm others," Starfire replied curtly. "She did do the hurting of people, but it was only to the ones that deserved it."

Cyborg looked at the ground. "By most standards, half the people in the city would deserve to be 'hurt'. But the girl's definition of hurt was kill..."

"She didn't have complete control over her hexes. Though, most of us don't have complete control over our actions either," Terra admitted, folding her arms over her chest. "Guess we know why her name's Jinx then."

"Guys. Love to have a conversation about fate 'n all, but later. We have a job to do," Beast Boy grumbled a little, clearly uncomfortable with the gloomy feeling quickly overtaking them all.

The other three looked at him for a few minutes, then Cyborg scratched the back of his head. "I suppose you're right. C'mon guys."

Slowly, the glanced at each other and followed Cyborg into the ruins of the old prison, looking around at the rusted doors to the prison cells. There were still some bodies laying around, emaciated, skeletal bodies that seemed almost inhuman with how disfigured they were. Cyborg grimaced and knelt by one, touching the skin carefully.

"Died recently. No more than a day or two ago."

"But I thought this place was abandoned... the inmates were supposed to have been moved to the newer jail on the other side of town."

"These doors no longer have working locks. Maybe these guys just wandered here and like, starved to death..."

There was a dejected silence.

"... dude, I don't think so..." Beast Boy pointed at one body, where there seemed to be a tiny symbol etched into one shoulder blade.

Cyborg looked more closely and his face darkened as he saw what it was.

"Okay, not starved to death. Murdered."

"Dunno about that," Terra looked at one body sadly. "Looking at these guys... makes you think that whoever did it was putting 'em out of their misery..."

"Still murder," Cyborg grumbled, looking away. "Let's keep going. There's a path that leads underground."

He jumped down a hole in the ground and the others followed him shortly, looking around at the empty prison cells. The dank air still held the scent of moss and rot to it; it had not been opened to the outside world for a long while. Cyborg paled slightly as he spotted more bodies in another cell, looking a little disturbed as he moved over to inspect them.

He raised his arm and scanned the surrounding area, looking at the distribution of gases in the air.

"Low levels of oxygen, high CO2, lots of methane..."

He spotted a door on the other side, the door that was supposed to lead to the upper level of the prison, and tried opening it. It was rusted shut.

The pieces clicked together in his mind, and he paled a little more. "You've got to be kidding me."

"What? What's wrong?"

"This place was supposed to be closed about two years ago, and from what I can tell, nobody has been in or out of this level of the prison until now. Which means that these bodies..."

"... are the bodies of the inmates who were stuck here... for two years?"

"Nobody bothered to check if there were still people down here before they closed this place? Seriously?"

Beast Boy blinked, looking at one of the emaciated bodies. "You'd think they would have starved to death..."

Cyborg looked at him grimly. "Still rats and roaches down here. If they really wanted to keep living, and hoping that someone would set them free..."

"That is not what we should be worrying about," Starfire said quietly from behind them, closing her eyes. "If what you have said is true, does that mean that our once friend Jinx was down here all this time..."

Everyone froze. It was silent for a long while and suddenly the air around them was filled with more than just the sense of rot and decay; it was heavy with despair and solitude, utter confinement, with no hope of escape. They had locked her down here, not given her a second thought, and left her alone, shackled for what she must have perceived to be the rest of her life.

"... we abandoned her... did we not?"

Cyborg gritted his teeth. "One way to find out."

There was another hole in the ground and he jumped in, down one level, then another, hitting the cold, dirt covered floor, looking down the darkened hall, toward the opposite end, where there seemed to be some sort of broken contraption that used to be a barrier. The other Titans followed him tentatively, making their way toward the circular area, staring down at the ground where undoubtedly, Jinx had been.

It was littered with small bones - their stomachs churned, just thinking about the fact that Jinx had had to eat exactly what Cyborg had said - rats and roaches - to survive.

The space was startlingly small, probably barely large enough for someone of Jinx's size to lay down in, but probably rather uncomfortably if the barrier had been kept up, and by the looks of the imprints on the ground in the area, she had not been let out at all.

Abruptly, Starfire fell to her knees and put her hands on the ground, looking dejectedly at the tiny area - the tiny prison that they had put their supposed friend in. Some friends they turned out to be.

"... did we really..?"

Nobody wanted to speak, or even move. Around them, the darkness felt heavy, like the shroud of death and the weight of guilt, a reminder of the fact that they had condemned a friend down here, abandoning her to a corrupt justice system, ruining the rest of her life, all because she lacked a little control. Okay, maybe more than just a little, but did she really deserve the hell that they had put her in?

_No, she didn't. _

Two pairs of crimson eyes watched the four figures, and a slender figure shifted in the darkness.

_Yes, now you feel guilty. Only now do you feel awful that you abandoned her, **after **her life was already ruined. After you left her to rot. Now, no matter what you do, no matter what remorse you show, no matter what amends you try to make, there is no forgiveness. _

The crimson eyes closed and the figure disappeared, melding perfectly with the shadows.

* * *

Robin grimaced and turned away from the body, trying not to imagine how the man had ended up like that. He took several deep breaths, trying to detach himself, then opened his eyes and looked at the figure, focusing objectively on any clues he might learn from it.

_Two fatal wounds. One in the pelvis, the other... pretty obvious. Aimed at the sexual organs, that's odd. _He frowned.

_This one of **those **places. This is a man, looks like someone who's probably used to getting what he wants around her. Not unlikely that he'd try to seduce a woman, or rape her if she tried to resist. Of course, if he encountered someone stronger than him... so supposing our killer did this, it becomes plausible that it is a woman. But I don't have enough clues to make that assumption yet. _

He looked more closely, turning the head sideways slightly. There was a bite mark on the neck, but he would not get anything from that. Nothing to be gleaned from the body itself, then. Walking around, he inspected the surrounding area carefully.

A cup, still on the counter, filled with tea, and several plates stacked on top of each other, with crumbs and bones on them - someone must've been pretty hungry. He put on a pair of fresh gloves and tried dusting the silverware for fingerprints, but coming up with nothing conclusive, turned his attention elsewhere again.

The rest of the room seemed mostly undisturbed. In fact, if not for the body in the bar area, he would have suspected that nothing was wrong at all; someone had simply had a late night snack and decided to clean up in the morning. But the fact of the matter was, there was a dead man sprawled on the floor, mutilated in an awful manner, and he didn't know who had done it or how he - or she - had done something like this.

Grumbling, he moved to leave the room, and then the light switch happened to catch his eye. He blinked once. Then twice. Nope, it wasn't just his imagination. It appeared to be in the on position, and yet the lights above him were very clearly off. He hadn't noticed until now - there was no need to turn on the lights with the sunlight streaming into the room from the windows, but now that he looked at it, it seemed very odd.

He looked outside of the door, at the pair of police officers guarding the entrance so that nobody unauthorized could enter. "The lights in this room _are _working, right? I don't suppose they are all burned out?"

"I don't know, sir. We tried to turn 'em on earlier but they just wouldn't work. They look fine, but we didn't get the chance to inspect 'em since you said you were coming."

Robin nodded and ducked back in the room, flipping the light on and off, frowning when nothing happened. He got on top of the counter and, stretching up, looked at one of the bulbs embedded into the ceiling.

As they had said, it seemed just fine. The filament was intact and the bulb did not seem to be broken, but just for good measure, he pried off the glass covering it and unscrewed it.

For some reason, he felt a flash of violet light in his mind as he touched it, but it was only a fleeting sensation and a minute later, he wasn't sure that it wasn't just his imagination. Still, it was probably because he was an overly cautious person, but that feeling aroused his suspicion slightly, and he decided to test the bulb to see if it was working.

Robin pulled out a battery pack from his belt and attached it to the bulb with a couple of wires. And as if by some sort of eerie magic, it lit up just fine. So the problem was in the circuitry in the room. Rubbing his head, he got back on the bar counter and screwed the bulb back in - and then looked at it, wide-eyed, as it lit up brightly as it made contact with the metal holder.

And then it suddenly blew up.

Robin yelled and rushed out of the room as all of the light bulbs in the ceiling exploded simultaneously, showering the floor with a curtain of shattered glass. The officers ran toward him, but he held his arm out to stop them as he looked back into the room.

On the floor, the pieces of broken glass formed a jagged S-shaped symbol.

* * *

"I've got a gift for y-o-ou," Jinx said in a sing-song voice, running over to Raven as she entered the dark room.

Raven raised an eyebrow as Jinx presented her with a piece of folded, black cloth. Wordlessly, she took the article of clothing from the girl's arms and her eyes lit up slightly as she saw that it was a hooded, black cloak, one that seemed as if it would fit perfectly to her.

"Try it on."

Raven blinked as she raised the hood over her face, becoming no more than a pair of violet eyes in the darkness.

"Well?"

"I have a gift for you too."

"You didn't answer my questi- oooh more food!"

Raven watched as the girl dug into the cake hungrily, waiting patiently as she finished one slice of it before speaking again. "I saw your friends."

Jinx licked a bit of sweet frosting off her finger. "Cool. How are they doing?"

"They realized that they had left you to rot," she murmured. "You have no idea how guilty they felt."

"Oh, that's nice," Jinx replied, biting into another slice of cake, then looked at Raven when the other girl did not reply. "... you don't really expect me to forgive them, do you?"

"Not at all. I was just thinking about how futile their acts of heroism are."

"You mean the fact that they don't do shit for anyone?"

Raven shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure they save lives. But really, trying to clean up all the filth one bit at a time is impossible. It's too little, and in your case, they did far more harm than good."

Jinx yawned. "I already know 'bout that whole stupid righteousness nonsense. They're a bunch of fools, thinking the little bit that they can do can change the world by themselves."

Raven pursed her lips together, looking thoughtfully at the ground for a moment. "I suppose it's like a bag of rice infested with weevils. You don't try to pick out the bugs one by one - that would take forever. No, you just set the whole thing on fire and start anew."

Jinx shrugged. "Sure thing, Miss Philosophy. I'm in, as long as you keep bringing me my goodies."

"Fair enough," Raven chuckled lightly, before turning away. "But before I do that, I have another gift to deliver. To your friends."

The pinkette grinned. "I'm sure they'll enjoy it, whatever it is."

"Oh, they will. I'm sure that they'll find it absolutely delightful."

* * *

A/N: Clarifying one thing...

I gave a few snippets of both Jinx's and Raven's pasts, though the details are obviously a bit vague. We'll learn more as the story progresses.


End file.
